LIS 9763

I’m in total agreement about how quickly this semester has flown by – shocking! Hard to believe this is my final blog post…but here we go with answers to the lucky 7 questions:
 
1.      Has your view of social software changed since starting this course? If so, how?
 

1. Has your view of social software changed since starting this course? If so, how?

Aww, our last week.  Here are my attempts at answering the questions posed for this week:

   1. Has your view of social software changed since starting this course? If so, how?

I think that before this course, I felt that social software tools probably WERE useful, but I can't say that I knew how exactly to use them all, or really, how best to use them in a library.  I think they also seemed informal, or not really professional before this course, but now I feel that they can be used in a professional way, and for some great purposes.

1.    Has your view of social software changed since starting this course? If so, how?

To be honest apart from blogs, Facebook and Myspace I wasn’t really sure what social software was.  This course introduced me to RSS, Delicious, Tweeting and Flickr just to name a few.  So yes, my view has changed completely.  I would say that I have a better understanding of the programs, how they work and how they can be applied in a library setting.

This week’s readings point to several important ways that social software has changed the web landscape, and thus the best practices we must incorporate into library services. To me, Shirky's (2008) video in which he discusses society’s current form of “cognitive surplus” is all about potential.

This week’s readings and video highlight that social software can be used as a method of encouraging transparency, approachability, inclusivity, innovation, and participation among both library staff and users. Therefore, as I see it, one of the greatest lessons derived from Web 2.0 is that as librarians and information professionals, we can explore, play with, implement and evaluate these technologies as a means of learning about and fostering exemplary service provision and staff relations both online and off.
 

Two main philosophies strike me when I thin of social software:

I cannot believe how quickly this semester flew by.  There is still time to talk about web 2.0 and social software on a grander scale though, so let's do that.

Some quick notes from the articles this week:

Transparency - Certainly a good idea, and from the reading we saw that this even incorporates USING social software tools internally, such as blogs, to get information out to staff and allow them to have their voices heard.

Overall, I found this week’s readings to be very helpful. Throughout the term, we’ve read and talked a lot about the different types of social software tools can benefit libraries. But this doesn’t mean that libraries should just go ahead and create accounts in every social software tool currently known to man. We need to have a PLAN. This is something that I think many libraries (and other non-profits) often forget. Before spending the time to create profiles and upload content, librarians need to sit down and clearly define what it is they want t

The marketing and evaluation of library services is definitely a challenging responsibility. As librarians, we are full of great ideas, and the enthusiasm to see them through to fruition. The tough part often comes in getting users to take advantage of our efforts, and this includes the introduction of Web 2.0 technologies into libraries. Unfortunately, simply creating a blog announcing new programs or a Facebook profile with links to various library services is not enough to maintain our relevance with users.